from sp!n to gene

http://www.geocities.ws/listen2gene/spin.html

 

I am often asked about Sp!n.  So I figured, why not elaborate?  After all they have a song up here half the time.  Therefore, this is what I have gathered. I apologize for this sounding like a 7 year old wrote it. I plan to rewrite it soon.

 

        Where to begin?. . .Well, Sp!n was Steve Mason and Matt James' original band before Gene.   Matt, John Mason, AKA Steve Mason's brother, and Lee Clarke met studying at Thames Polytechnic.  In 1987 the trio recorded a single "Flight Of Angels" and released it under the name The Go Hole.  The Go Hole was apparently considered an "experimental pop band". The single was released on their Big Pop Records and 'cleverly' distributed by Pinnacle.  John Peel did in fact have them in the studio on 17 November 1987. They played three other tracks titled "Bayonet Practice", "Treacherous", & "I'll Be Waiting".

 

..............After Steve came back from Hong Kong, the four piece was set.  In 1989 they changed their name to Sp!n.  Sp!n blended the classic 1989-1993 'Baggy Pop Manchester Sound' with a tougher bite of South London guitar grooves. Lee wrote most of the songs for the band. They opened for acts such as Manic Street Preachers & Thousand Yard Stare, they headlined at venues like the Windsor Old Trout and Underworld.  All releases were put on The Foundation Label and distributed by Rough Trade.

 

Sp!n recorded one full-length album titled In Motion, and two singles for "Let's Pretend" and "Scratches [in the sand]".  Later on 23 March 1991, there was a horrible accident where a truck hit the band's stalled van. The accident threw their manager and their live engineer, Andrew 'Snake' Newton, out of the van into a nearby field.  Their manager broke several bones, and 'Snake' had broke his back spending 6 months in the hospital. Matt was left with a broken wrist, Steve with a broken collarbone, and worst of all John with skull damage.  John was in a coma for several weeks.  He had to have reconstructive surgery and unfortunately resulting in him leaving the band.  That was when Kevin Miles, Steve andMatt's neighbor, filled in on bass. Kev was recommended by his roommate, Sp!n's manager.  A while later, the soon to be 'fifth member' of Gene, Jerry Smith, took over as manager. Jerry would spend over ten years working with Gene.

 

Lee then left the band to pursue a career in dance music.  In 1993 Lee Clarke was in a duo with Andrew 'Snake' Newton.  Newton has engineered for both Sp!n and Gene, and has contributed in producing many B-sides during the Drawn to the Deep End era.  They were dubbed Volatile.  Lee Clarke has not been in the music business since.  Newtoncontinues as one of Gene's live engineers, as well as one for Duran Duran's 2004 tour.

 

Finally in 1991, the band hired a 'temporary vocalist', who Steve met at the Underworld.  He was Martin T. Falls, who would soon be dubbed Martin Rossiter (Martin came up with this alias from Mark E. Smith's band, The Fall).  With this new line up, the band recorded their last effort, Hot Blood EP.  Their last Peel session was in February 1992.  With one more try the band released a cassette demo titled Demos September 1992. The demo featured "Decide", which later became Gene's 1995 B-side "I Can't Decide If She Really Loves Me". The demo was distributed through Jerry Smith's Amalgamated Talent in London. Eventually, these four boys became Gene. . . and the rest is history, I guess.

Got all of that?

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John Mason, disappointed with the music business and his ideals of The Clash, Crass and independence overlooked for the limited vision of those caught up in legal wrangling, went on to become a writer. An emotive term like 'mental damage' for some was too hard to ignore regardless of its validity. Clark briefly recorded demos with Andrew "Snake" Newton, who had been the live sound engineer for Spin, then gave up music to become a primary school teacher. Clark felt he was getting a bit old to be a rock star and decided to play and record only in his own bedroom and indeed returned to this after a hiatus of about ten years.

Wanting to continue together in a band, Steve Mason and James recruited bass player Kevin Miles, who had a long association with the band. After seeing Watford-based Welshman Martin Rossiter cross the floor of a club, Mason approached him and they began to talk. Their meeting ended with Rossiter handing out his business card ("Martin Rossiter: Soothsayer to the Stars") and Mason asking Rossiter if he would like to audition with the band. Rossiter appeared on Spin's last demos as "Martin T. Falls" (a nod to the Mancunian band The Fall) shortly before the decision was made to adopt the name Gene.

..so you wanna be the one!